8 Groundbreaking Mobile Tech Advancements for 2012

Now that the New Year is here, it's time to start thinking about mobile tech advancements. While 2011 was a breakout year for mobile technology, this year will take some of those concepts, and bring them to the masses.

Now that the champagne has fizzled and everyone has tossed out their party hats from New Year's, it's time to start thinking about mobile tech advancements. While 2011 was a breakout year, with devices like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Apple's iPad 2, and the Asus Transformer Prime changing how we interact with others, this year will take some of the concepts that made headlines, such as 3D phones and the iPhone Siri service, and bring them to the masses.

1 of 8

Near-Field Communication (NFC)

One of the most exciting advancement in mobile technology has to do with how we'll pay for products in the checkout. Phones like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus use a near-field communication (NFC) chip that only has to make contact with a reader to process a transaction. Major outlets like Walgreens and McDonald's already use NFC-equipped terminals. You can use the Google Wallet service to track purchases as well. (Although many phones, including the Galaxy Nexus on Verizon, don't yet support Google Wallet, so just how you'll use NFC to pay by phone is still being worked out.)

NFC saves time because you just tap your phone on the terminal. Yet NFC will go well beyond financial transactions. Today you can exchange data between two Galaxy Nexus phones using the Android Beam service. You place the phones back-to-back to swap browser pages, YouTube videos, and contacts. Also, we'll start seeing Bluetooth gadgets that use NFC to authenticate the connection—between your phone and a headset, for example—by tapping the devices together. Finally, no more Bluetooth pins!

2 of 8

Bluetooth Health Device Protocol

Bluetooth has been around forever, and while it works well for streaming music from your phone to the car stereo or for using a headset, there have been few innovations beyond the basic uses. In 2012 a new protocol called Bluetooth Health Device Protocol could become a raging success. The idea is that your phone can connect to heart monitors, step-counting sensors in your shoes, and even the exercise bike at the gym without having to attach a transmitter. Today, if you use the ANT protocol, which is used with the Adidas miCoach system, there's an adapter you need to attach to your iPhone that's easy to lose. Bluetooth HDP, which is available on the Google Nexus, works without having to use an external adapter.

3 of 8

3D on Touchscreen Tablets

Display technology tends to follow a fairly predictable path: First it comes to the home television market with its huge user base, then on to smartphones, and from there to the burgeoning tablet market. Last year LG and HTC both shipped 3D phones (the Thrill and the Evo 3D, respectively), but this year we might see the first 3D tablet. The screen on a smartphone, even at 4.5-inches, really is too small to perceive the jutting head of a dragon or a fist flying out of the screen. But 3D makes more sense on a tablet: Movies like Avatar and Tron 3D would look more convincing on the larger screen. So far no company has announced a 3D tablet for the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, so we're still waiting for this one.

4 of 8

Mobile Security Gets More Advanced

Last year a researcher named Trevor Eckhart got mobile users in a fit when he explosed how carriers were using a service called Carrier IQ (carrieriq.com), which many experts say acts like a rootkit and can even monitor your text messages and email. Although CarrierIQ was something mobile carriers installed themselves, hackers could do the same thing, or even install an app that records video and sound even when you are not using the built-in camera.

Fortunately, your smartphone has an inherent advantage over the PC on your desk. When you connect over a 3G or 4G signal, the carrier constantly watches traffic to and from your phone. (Some broadband providers for your computer do the same thing, using an appliance like the one from Kindsight Labs.) As you move around town and jump between towers, carriers change the connection automatically, which makes it difficult for a hacker to install a rootkit. Still, in 2012, mobile security will become a hot issue; carriers like Sprint and Verizon have started using a threat management service called Lookout (mylookout.com) that analyzes traffic and flags harmful malware, blocking access to your phone's operating system.

5 of 8

Big Displays and Better Battery Power

Smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy Nexus look brighter and clearer than previous models, but there's also a problem: These gargantuan screens (the Galaxy's is 4.65 inches) consume more battery power. But a new technology called PenTile, developed by Nouvoyance, can help pump up battery life. The technology uses an extra point of light in addition to the usual red, green, and blue pixels. When you see white, this extra subpixel is saving power because the RGB subpixels do not have to work as hard. PenTile phone displays also do a better job of dimming backlighting of the display when there are mostly dark colors, or increasing backlighting for mostly bright colors.

After testing the Galaxy Nexus for a week, I can tell you this: The screen is clearer than other smartphones, with the PenTile effect smoothing out the pixels. Battery life is a notch better than the previous Nexus model, lasting about six hours in my tests, yet movies and photos look brighter and clearer.

6 of 8

Better Sound From Your Smartphone

Not every smartphone is a wunderkind of sound engineering—some sound like they are playing your favorite bands through corrugated cardboard. The problem is that, though phones have become the default mobile music players for most of us, they are still designed first and foremost to handle phone calls and data, not for playing Radiohead.

But one innovation, which is already available on the HTC Rezound, is to adjust audio frequencies for the tracks you're playing. For example, when you plug in earbuds, the phone automatically adjusts the EQ settings to add some bass (important for the small earbuds) and tone down the treble. The result is more distinct audio (it's optimized for the Rezound's earbuds, but can offer improved sound through any headphone, HTC says). The Rezound also can analyze your music as it plays and adjust the audio accordingly. It just sounds better and more realistic than the washed out, tinny, and bass-light sound many phones provide.

7 of 8

Quad-Core Processors for Faster Gaming

Quad-core processing, already seen in new tablets like the Transformer Prime by Asus, is a way to accelerate processing power for games while also managing battery consumption—for instance, a quad-core processor can shut down some of the cores when you're just checking email.

When you play a game like Bladeslinger, Shadowgun, or Riptide GP, though, you can see the difference with the extra power: amazing water effects, high polygon counts on the game characters, and more detailed textures. Quad-core processors will also allow game companies like Capcom to repurpose console games such as Lost Planet for tablets. Most importantly, your smartphone and tablet will run faster for every app you use, whether it is a game, the Web browser, or even just a simple note-taking app like Evernote.

8 of 8

Speech Recognition Expands

The Siri service on the iPhone 4S proved that voice recognition on a mobile device can actually work. You can speak complex commands, like setting a reminder about a dinner date with your wife, that will appear when you leave work, based on your GPS location. The service even reads incoming text messages. Siri inspired a lot of hype (and jokes about what the service would and wouldn't do for you), but its style of speech recognition will become only more mainstream in 2012.

New apps will go even further, as natural language search—speaking just about anything (not just trigger commands) and having your phone or car understand your intent and respond appropriately—gets better. The Vlingo app for Android reads all incoming messages, including emails—an impressive achievement because email tends to include a larger and more complex vocabulary than texts. Vlingo also goes beyond Siri in that it lets you control apps; you can look up restaurants with the Yelp app or your next flight with Kayak simply by speaking.

Cadillac Cue service, which should debut on the Cadillac XTS next year, shows how this tech will be increasingly integrated into cars, too. Early on, Cadillac says, Cue will interpret basic commands for controlling the climate in the car or advancing to the next song on your playlist. But the AI is built for much more advanced speech recognition. For example, Cadillac says, the service will one day allow you to simply say the name of a business to get immediate turn-by-turn nav directions.

A Part of Hearst Digital Media
Popular Mechanics participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites.